It is generally believed that animal proteins are hypercholesterolemic while plant proteins are hypocholesterolemic. Studies on number of plant and animal proteins have shown that groundnut protein produces the highest concentration of serum cholesterol in rats fed on cholesterol-free diet. It has been shown that the ratio of lysine to arginine of a protein may affect on serum cholesterol levels and atherogenicity. Numbers of studies have indicated the source of dietary protein and more specifically, the dietary amino acid ratio within these proteins seem to relate to changes in serum cholesterol levels.
Arginine is present in most of the proteins, including meats, nuts, milk, cheese and eggs. In particular, nuts and grains have high arginine to lysine ratio. Arginine is essential to the metabolism of ammonia that is generated from protein breakdown. It is also needed to transport the nitrogen used in muscle metabolism. Arginine is one of the body building amino acids and influences several hormone functions. L-arginine is shown to improve/decrease liver functions, to lower cholesterol levels and to inhibit the growth of certain tumors in animal system. Arginine participates in many other important reactions such as nitric oxide synthesis and augmatine or creatine formation. It's the body's most potent blood vessel expander and main blood pressure regulator. Several studies have shown that lysine:arginine of a protein is a critical factor determining its effect on cholesterol metabolism Feeding excess lysine has been reported to produce hypercholesterolemia in rats. A low lysine:arginine ratio in protein has been shown to reduce serum and aortic cholesterol.
Several protein additives have been developed from plant sources to serve as functional ingredients in formulated food systems. Flours, concentrates and isolates from plant sources such as groundnut, sunflower, cotton seed and rapeseed/mustard possess a broad spectrum of functional properties. The oilseed meals are excellent protein rich raw material for a number of fabricated food products. However, they, have limited use due to lack of some of the desirable functional properties. One of the ways of improving the functional attributes of oilseed proteins is the modification of the proteins. Modification of protein can be accomplished by using the chemical or enzymatic methods. Acid and alkali hydrolysis of protein leads to decrease nutritive amino acids, production of toxic constituents like lysino alanine.
Enzymatic methods accomplish protein hydrolysis selectively without causing structural changes in the amino acids that make up the proteins. The peptide profile generated by enzymatic methods is well defined. The protein retains its nutritive value in enzymatic hydrolysis than any traditional acid/alkali hydrolysis.
The most commonly used raw materials in the preparation of protein hydrolysates are oilseed flours, legume flours, casein and animal proteins.
Groundnut is grown primarily as oilseed crop. Major portion of the groundnut is converted to oil. The cake after oil extraction contains 40% protein. The defatted meal contains 45–50% protein. In addition to protein, it is also a good source of vitamins and minerals.
Protein hydrolysates are used in diets of patients suffering from problems of digestion or poor absorption, intestinal diseases due to food allergies. Protein hydrolysates are also used as supplement for people who have special protein needs such as elderly, athletes and people on weight control diets.
The protein hydrolysates can be good additives to improve the functional characteristics and nutritional value of the end products. Some of the drawbacks of the hydrolysates prepared using acid hydrolysis are humin formation, high temperature involvement, color formation, high salt content in the product, destruction of some of the essential amino acids and low yields.
At present, there are no patents available for the production of protein hydrolyzate from groundnut with high degree of hydrolysis (DH) for use in food formulations.
Reference may be made to T. Sumura et. al., (2000) U.S. Pat. No. 6,022,702 wherein, A process for producing a soy protein hydrolyzate with a low content of glycinin is described. Then the process aqueous suspension of soy protein isolate containing glycinin and β-conglycinin hydrolysed with pepsin at a concentration of about 0.001% to 0.5% by weight of the isolate at a pH of 1–2.8 at a temperature of 20–50° C. and neutralized with sodium hydroxide. The hydrolyzate is heated at 140° C. for 15 seconds and spray dried. The drawback of the method is that neutralization of the acid hydrolyzate results in salts formation, which leads to salty taste in the product when added.
Reference may be made to Chervan et. al. (1984) U.S. Pat. No. 4,443,540 wherein, a process for the hydrolysis of protein using a selected protein material by enzymatic method, separation of the hydrolysed protein by ultra filtration to recover the low molecular weight protein. In the process soy protein isolate is hydrolysed at alkaline pH of 7–9 with alkaline protease pronase at a temperature of 25–60° C. The hydrolysed material is separated to a lower molecular level of 10,000 daltons and the high molecular weight fractions are further hydrolysed. The drawback of the method is repeated hydrolysis of the high molecular weight protein. The process is not cost effective and number of steps involved in the preparation is more time consuming.
Reference may be made to Hamm, D. J. (1993) U.S. Pat. No. 5,180,597 wherein, a process for the production of hydrolysed proteins containing no detectable level of monochlorohydroxyproparol has been described. In the process wheat gluten is hydrolysed with prozyme6, a neutral protease at a temperature of 40–50° C. at a pH of 6.5–7.0, enzyme concentration of about 0.5–1% by weight for 4 h. The hydrolysed protein is separated, concentrated, and treated with gaseous hydrochloric add to deamidate free amino acids. The acidified hydrolyzate from the deamidation is then neutralized to pH 5 to 7 with sodium hydroxide. The drawback of the method is that the hydrolysis is not controlled to prevent bitterness.
Reference may be made to Ernster J. H. (1991) U.S. Pat. No. 5,077,062 wherein, a low sodium, low monosodium glutamate soy hydrolyzate is prepared from soy material such as soy flour, soy meal or soy grits by hydrolyzing the soy material with a protease enzyme in water. The hydrolysis carried out at 90° C. for 2 h. The resulting hydrolyzate contains about 45–55 enzymatic hydrolysed soy based protein. The enzymatically hydrolysed soy protein hydrolyzate has an average molecular weight of about 670,000±50,000. The drawback of the process is that the hydrolysis carried out at high temperature for long time. The process is energy consuming.
Reference may be made to Satoh et. al., (1988) U.S. Pat. No. 4,577,007 wherein, a process for preparing two kinds of hydrolysates is described using protease from soy protein. The soy protein isolate is hyrolysed at pH 7 with papain for 6 h, acidified to pH 3.0 and subjected to centrifugation. The precipitate is neutralised to pH 6.8 and hydrolysed the protein with pepsin for 4 h at 55° C. (pH 6.8). The separation is done by ultra filtration with a molecular weight cut off of 15,000–20,000. The filtrate is freeze dried. The drawback of the process is that it involves acidification to lower the pH to 2.5–5.0 and separation of two kinds of hydrolyzate mixture, which leads to increase the salt content in the product.
Reference may be made to Cheruppanpulil et. al. (2002) U.S. Pat. No. 6,420,133 wherein, a process for preparation of high protein hydrolyzate using mixed flour from different oilseeds such as soybean, sesame and groundnut. Hydrolysis for 2–3 h with fungal enzyme alkaline protease followed hydrolyzing with a plant enzyme papain as second enzyme at temperature of 50–60° C. for 1–2 h. The drawback of the process involves two stage hydrolysis with two different enzymes and also time consuming. The enzyme used in this process is different.
Reference may be made to Yamamoto Ko et. al. (2003) European Patent No. 1331273 A1 wherein, a process for producing a liquid protein hydrolyzate involves dispersing the defatted soybeans in water at pH 3 and 6 and heated to 120–150° C. The denatured proteins are treated with microorganism Koji mould. The drawback of the process is heating the protein at a high temperature in acidic pH may lead destruction of some of the amino acids. The enzyme and the source of protein used are different from the enzyme used in the present study.
Reference may be made to a published paper titled “Production and characterization of enzymatic hydrolyzate from soy protein isolate” Netto, F. M. and Galeazzi M. A. M., Lebenson, Wiss. U. Technol. 31, 624–631 (1998) wherein, the soy protein isolate is enzymatically hydrolysed using pancreatin enzyme to a degree of hydrolysis of 14.5%. The drawback of the protein hydrolyzate preparation is loss of some of the essential amino acids, which have to be supplemented to meet the specific needs.
Reference may be made to Cipollo, K. L. and Wagner, T. J. (1987) European Patent No. 0148600 B1, wherein a process is described to prepare protein hydrolyzate from soy protein isolate after jet cooking or dynamic heating at 104–204° C. The material is cooled and hydrolysed using bromelian and dried. The process involves multi steps during isolation. The enzyme used is different from the present invention.
Reference may be made to Olsen H. S. (1981) U.S. Pat. No. 4,324,805 wherein a method is described to produce soy protein hydrolyzate from fat containing soy material by washing with aqueous medium at an acidic pH; the partially defatted material is treated with enzyme alkalase and deactivating the enzyme by reducing the pH to 4, treated with carbon and concentrated by reverse osmosis and freeze dried. The drawback of the process is that it involves multi steps and the raw material used is partially defatted flour, the left over oil comes into hydrolyzate, which may lead to off flavors. The enzyme inactivation is done by addition of acid, which is likely to lead to increase in salt content of the product.
Reference may be made to published article titled “Effect of dietary protein and amino acids on the metabolism of cholesterol carrying lipoproteins in rats” Park, M. C., and Liepa, G. V., 1982, J. Nutrition, 112, 1892–1897, wherein the effect of various dietary proteins and amino acids on serum lipid metabolism is studied in rat model. Rats fed a diet containing protein from animal sources had greater serum and high density lipoprotein (HDL)—cholesterol concentrations as well as increased lecithin:cholesterol acryltrans ferase (LCAT) activities than those fed a diet containing protein from plant sources. Animal fed arginine—supplemented casein diet showed a decrease in both serum and HDL cholesterol compared casein alone. Addition of lysine to cotton seed protein diet caused an increase in serum and HDL—cholesterol fractions. The drawback is that all the plant proteins are not compatible with lysine and to reduce the cholesterol.
Reference may be made to published article tided “Lysine:Arginine ratio of a protein influences cholesterol metabolism part I—Studies on sesame protein having low lysine:arginine ratio”. Rajamohan, T., and Kurup, P. A., 1997, Indian Journal of Experimental Biology, 35, 1218–1223, wherein the effect of globulin fraction with a lysine:arginine ratio 0.67 and the diet containing casein with a ratio of 2.0 were fed to rats to study the effect on cholesterol metabolism. The study indicated that rats fed with sesame globulin showed significantly lower concentrations of cholesterol in the serum and aorta. The study clearly suggests that the lysine:arginine ratios of a protein exert hypocholesterolemic effects.
Reference may be made to published article titled “Vegetable protein and Atheroselerosis”. Kritchevsky, D., 1979, A.O.C.S., 56, 136–140, wherein stated that the vegetable proteins appears to be less cholesteremic than animal protein. It is hypothesized that a high ratio of lysine to arginine may be important.
Reference may be made to the published paper titled “Lysine:Arginine ratio of protein and its effect on cholesterol metabolism”. Rajamohan, T., and Kurup, P. A., 1986, Ind. Journal of Biochemistry and Biophysics, 23, 294–296, wherein the lysine arginine ratio of the protein had significant effect on the metabolism of cholesterol in rats fed cholesterol diet. The results indicated that lysine:arginine ratio of 1.0 significantly lowered cholesterol in the serum, liver and aorta and increased hepatic cholesterogenesis as well as degradation of cholesterol to bile acid when compared to lysine:arginine ratio of 2.0.
Reference may be made to U.S. Pat. No. 5,952,193, Shimamura et al., 1997, wherein a peptide mixture from whey protein hydrolyzate with specific amount of free amino acid is described. The peptide mixture is low in phenyl alanine content. The present invention relates to the method of producing a peptide mixture with high arginine and low lysine content from groundnut protein hydrolyzate by an enzymatic method.
Reference may be made to U.S. Pat. No. 5,658,714, Westfall et al., 1992, wherein a high quality soy protein isolate with a significant reduction in phytate and aluminium is prepared via ultrafiltration. The present invention is related to production of a peptide mixture and not whole protein and the source of protein is groundnut.
Peptides that have bitter taste often contain high proportions of leucine, valine and aromatic amino acid residues. Very bitter peptides contain proline residues. The specificity of the protease determines the hydrophobicity and amount of such peptides in the protein hydrolysate. Typically bitter peptides have high average hydrophobicity. In the hydrolysed peptides, the ratio of hydrophilic to hydrophobic amino acid was high which makes them non-bitter.
Groundnut protein isolate has been used for the first time to obtain non-bitter high arginine peptide. Fungal protease, which has been used to hydrolyze the raw material, cleaves the groundnut protein in such a way under the specified conditions of temperature, pH and time of hydrolysis to give a non-bitter taste to the hydrolyzate from which an arginine rich peptide fraction is separated based on molecular sieving by ultrafiltration. The selective separation of peptides to enrich the arginine content by ultrafiltration results in a peptide fraction that is non-bitter.
There are no patents available on the preparation of hydrolyzate from groundnut. Many cited literature have used a number of protein sources for preparing the hydrolysates. In the present invention the raw material used to prepare protein hydrolyzate is groundnut.